Talk:Blue Code of Silence

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This page had been listed for speedy deletion, however pages do link to it and it seems worthy of an article. Expansion seemed the better course. Gblaz 18:03, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I would suggest a merge with "Code Of Silence" instead. AgentFade2Black 21:38, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

This page has been renamed Blue Code of Silence; Googling quickly shows that this is the term more commonly employed in media and academic documents (rather than Blue Wall of Silence).

A merge with Code of Silence is not advised. The term Code of Silence is much more general, and includes omerta, black and white codes of silence (codes of silence among the clergy), sports codes of silence (in pro cycling, for example), military codes of silence, etc.

At the same time, Blue Code of Silence could do with considerable expansion, particularly in light of the reform initiatives in the 90's (e.g. the Christopher Commission, the adoption of a police misconduct provision by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, etc.) which also continue into this decade.--BuffaloBilly 01:59, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

To Ginkgo100: I was a little surprised myself to see how often Thin Blue Line is used interchangably with Blue Code of Silence, because in my mind they refer to two very different ideas. But it appears that it is, as claims the Thin Blue Line page ("The term is sometimes used as a pejorative against police who cover up criminal activity of fellow police officers."). For example:

"When the alleged perpetrator is a policeman, this stonewalling may, given the prevailing "code of silence" in police culture, morph into cover-ups, including retaliation against not only the victim but against any outspoken officer who crosses the 'thin blue line'...." -- from "Brutality in Blue"

Personally, I don't see this as proper usage; clearly it was not the original intent of Chief William Parker when he coined the term back in the 50's. But it isn't Wikipedia's role to dictate proper and improper usage....--BuffaloBilly 14:04, 29 August 2007 (UTC)